Democracy Is Doomed

Writing a blog entry like this is probably not the best way to get back into Mark Zuckerberg's good graces and regain my privilege to post links to this blog on Facebook, but I must speak about this now, before forces of darkness even greater than the Z-Man curtail my right to speak out anywhere in the Internet.

This past week's successful effort by Senate Republicans to block a commission to investigate the January 6 pro-Trump insurrection on the Capitol to prevent the certification of Joe Biden's election to the Presidency, lest such a commission find out anything that would would embarrass the GOP during the 2022 midterm elections.  This allows Republican leaders to go after President Biden on immigration and crime while avoiding thorny questions about Trump supporters' efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election by force.  And with the Democrats holding a bare majority in the House, it's almost a certainty, given the historic occurrence of the party controlling the executive branch to lose seats in the legislative branch, that they'll lose their majority next time around.  The lack of an investigation in Republicans' efforts to prevent Biden's election just makes it easier for the GOP to regain power in at least one house of Congress in 2022 . . . and the 2024 presidential and congressional elections.

Even if Trump doesn't run for President again, he could easily get the party to nominate a Trump lackey to oppose President Biden - say, Florida governor Ron DeSantis.  While all of this is going on, the GOP is using its power in various states to not only gerrymander legislative districts and restrict the right to vote but also install election officials to make sure that votes from Democratic districts don't get counted.  The result?  The GOP takes over the White House and Congress and, in tandem with state Republican leaders, freezes out Democrats to ensure that they can never regain power - because they will always be outvoted in future elections.

And so we celebrate our quarter-millennial anniversary as a nation in 2026 under an authoritarian government masquerading as a democracy - not unlike apartheid-era South Africa.  And the only reason we won't be the target of an international boycott that costs us the 2028 Olympics is because, well, we have nukes.

"But Steve," you say, "a House select committee can investigate the Janu-" Shut up right there, bucko!  If you think a House select committee can get to the bottom of the insurrection, you're dumber than you look!  A select committee will be controlled by Democrats, and its findings will have a partisan tinge to it.  A minority report rom the Republicans will rebut every finding point by point and will have just enough plausibility to satisfy right-leaning independents who voted for Biden in 2020 but don't want to vote for Democratic House and Senate candidates.  And to be  honest, a bipartisan commission's findings wouldn't have changed many - or any - minds among Trump's diehard supporters.  Trying to convince Trump supporters to accept the truth of the 2020 election is like trying to convince hip-hop fans to listen to classic rock.  

And if I'm going to compare hip-hop fans to Trump supporters, I can understand why Facebook wants nothing to do with this blog.

The only way a House select committee could investigation the January 6 riot in a nonpartisan fashion is if they deliberately make it nonpartisan by, say,  having a twelve-member committee of six Democrats and six Republicans, with Republican House members who voted for the commission as opposed to yokels like Louie Gohmert, and have a thirteenth member as chair - a Democrat, because the House is controlled by Democrats (but not for long!) - who would only vote to break a tie.  Maybe get Debbie Wasserman Schultz to chair it, because she's hated on both sides - now that's bipartisanship!  All kidding aside, I suppose I could write my own congresswoman, Mikie Sherrill, and suggest a select committee constructed in just this fashion, but then I'm only a constituent.

And yeah, yeah, I know Trump is being investigated for corruption and could end up in prison, but a prison term for Trump wouldn't necessarily preclude another presidential term for him. Just remember this.  Hitler did time in prison before he became chancellor of Germany.  The end.  

I can imagine the worst that could happen as a result of Republican efforts to undermine and purge President Biden and his supporters and take over Washington completely, putting them in the position they were in when Trump became President in 2017 - thus allowing them to sack everything and become a permanent governing minority.   I swear, I can see the rise of a right-wing dictatorship the same way I saw the pandemic coming - like a tidal wave.    With one key difference - I tried to deny the full-blown impact of the pandemic.  I somehow convinced myself that the pandemic would be over in a couple of months with enough hand washing and testing. This time I'm not lying to myself.  We're going to lose our democracy.  And if there's any way to prevent that from happening, I don't know what it would be.